City University English Debating Team

香港城市大學英文辯論隊

City University English Debating Team opens its doors to all UGC-funded students who show interest in debating and capability in logical thinking. We believe one may stand from different viewpoints and exchange ideas through debating. Members also actively participate in weekly trainings and international competitions to compete with elites from all over the world.

The style of debate our team practices is mainly British Parliamentary ("BP"). Motion is given on the day of debating and each team would have 15 minutes to prepare for the speeches. Each speaker in the team has to give a 7 minute speech on issue of world's significance.

British Parliamentary Debate

Many university level institutions in English speaking nations sponsor parliamentary debate teams, but the format is currently spreading to the high school and middle school levels as well. Despite the name, the Parliamentary style is not related to debates in governmental parliaments.

BP Basics:
In BP there are 4 teams (2 debaters in a team, so 8 debaters in total) in each round. Two teams represent the Government, and two teams represent the Opposition. The Government supports the resolution, and the Opposition opposes the resolution. The teams are also divided into the Opening and Closing halves of the debate. The teams are organized like this in the room:

Government (Proposition)

Opposition

Upper house (upper half)

Opening Government (OG)

Opening Opposition (OO)

Lower house (lower half)

Closing Government (CG)

Closing Opposition (CO)

There are two speakers on each team. Each speaker has a title. The titles are:

OG: Prime Minister

OO: Leader of the Opposition

Deputy Prime Minister

Deputy Leader of the Opposition

CG: Member of the Government

CO: Member of the Opposition

Government Whip

Opposition Whip

The speaking order is as follows:

Prime Minister First Speaker, OG

Leader of the Opposition First Speaker, OO

Deputy Prime Minister Second Speaker, OG

Deputy Leader of the Opposition Second Speaker, OO

Member of the Government First Speaker, CG

Member of the Opposition First Speaker, CO

Government Whip Second Speaker, CG

Opposition Whip Second Speaker, CO

Debates are presided over by a Speaker, who is often the Chair of the adjudicator panel. The Speaker keeps time and calls debaters to the floor.

Each debater has 7 minutes to speak. The first and last minutes are protected time. This means that no POIs may be offered during this time. The Speaker will give a signal at the end and the beginning of protected time, at the seven-minute mark, and at the end of grace. The Speaker will probably not give time signals otherwise, so it is recommended that debaters bring a stopwatch to time themselves or their partner.

World Universities Debating Championship

The World Universities Debating Championship ("WUDC") is the world's largest debating tournament, and one of the largest annual international student events in the world. It is a parliamentary debating event, held using a variant of the British Parliamentary Debate format. Each year, the event is hosted by a university selected by the World Universities Debating Council. The tournament is colloquially referred to as Worlds.

The 2019 Championship would be held in South Africa over the New Year holiday.